DIGEST
The digest printed below was prepared by House Legislative Services. It constitutes no part of the
legislative instrument. The keyword, one-liner, abstract, and digest do not constitute part of the law
or proof or indicia of legislative intent. [R.S. 1:13(B) and 24:177(E)]
CONFERENCE COMMITTEE REP ORT DIGEST
HCR 90 2021 Regular Session Schexnayder
Keyword and oneliner of the instrument as it left the House
REAPPORTIONMENT: Provides relative to redistricting principles and criteria
Report rejects Senate amendments which would have:
1. Required that each redistricting plan submitted be created giving due consideration to
traditional redistricting principles including but not limited to compactness and maintaining
cores of prior districts.
Digest of the bill as proposed by the Conference Committee
Proposed Joint Rule provides for minimally acceptable criteria for consideration of redistricting
plans in the following manner:
(1)All redistricting plans must meet the following criteria:
(a)Compliance with the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment and the 15th
Amendment to the U.S. Constitution; Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, as
amended; and all other applicable federal and state law.
(b)Each district shall be composed of contiguous geography.
(c)(i)To the extent practicable, each district within a plan shall contain whole election
precincts as those are represented as Voting Districts (VTDs) in the most recent
Census Redistricting TIGER/Line Shapefiles for Louisiana which corresponds to the
P.L. 94-171 data released by the U.S. Bureau of the Census for the decade in which
the redistricting is to occur or if the redistricting plan is submitted after the year in
which the legislature is required by Art. III, ยง6, of the Const. of La. to reapportion,
then to the extent practicable, the redistricting plan submitted for consideration shall
contain whole election precincts as those are represented as VTDs as validated
through the data verification program of the House and Senate in the most recent
Shapefiles made available on the website of the Legislature. (ii)In the event that a VTD must be divided, it shall be divided into as few districts as
practicable using a visible census tabulation boundary or boundaries.
(d)All redistricting plans shall respect the established boundaries of parishes,
municipalities, and other political subdivisions and natural geography of this state to
the extent practicable. Provides, however, that this criterion is subordinate to and
shall not be used to undermine the maintenance of communities of interest within the
same district to the extent practicable.
(e)The most recent P.L. 94-171 data released by the United States Bureau of the Census,
as validated through the data verification program of the House and Senate, shall be
the population data used to establish and for evaluation of proposed redistricting
plans.
(f)Each redistricting plan submitted by the public shall be submitted electronically in
a comma-delimited block equivalency file.
(2)In addition, redistricting plans for the House, Senate, PSC, and BESE shall meet the
following criteria:
(a)Single-member districts.
(b)Districts that are substantially equal in population. Therefore, under no
circumstances shall any plan be considered if the plan has an absolute deviation of
population which exceeds plus or minus 5% of the ideal district population.
(c)A whole plan which assigns all of the geography of the state.
(d)Due consideration given to traditional district alignments to the extent practicable.
(3)In addition, redistricting plans for Congress shall meet the following criteria:
(a)Single-member districts.
(b)Each district shall have a population as nearly equal to the ideal district population
as practicable.
(c)Be a whole plan which assigns all of the geography of the state.
(4)In addition, redistricting plans for the Supreme Court shall be a whole plan which assigns all
of the geography of the state.
(Adds Joint Rule No. 21)